Scene-stealer Wanda Sykes plays one of Congressman Evan Baxter's assistants in the Universal Pictures comedy, Evan Almighty. Steve Carell reprises his role as Evan and director Tom Shadyac returns for this sequel to the 2003 blockbuster Bruce Almighty, but Evan Almighty marks Sykes' first film with director Shadyac. Sykes was at first hesitant about signing on to the sequel but was eventually sold on the role because of Shadyac's enthusiasm for the project, and because she was allowed to go off script and add her own flavor to the character of Rita.
Working with Steve Carell: “We just cracked each other up. Steve is very funny and the guy, you know, he shows up. He works hard, you know? Me – I would’ve been complaining the whole time with the hair and he had to go through so much makeup. He had birds all on him and they’re pooping on his head. So he was a real trooper and just got into the spirit of the thing. You just had to have fun with it.”
Going Off the Script and Improvising Away: Sykes says that about 90% of her lines in the movie were improvised, and that’s just what director Tom Shadyac wanted her to do. But she realized that Evan Almighty was targeted at families and kept it clean. “There are some things that just wouldn’t work, you know? Well put it this way, we weren’t told that, ‘Hey, this is a PG. This is going to be a clean movie, so no cursing.’ We weren’t getting – at least I wasn’t getting that direction, which I’m happy he didn’t give it to me because it probably would have stifled me. But you just could feel it. You’re standing here in this big ark [with] all these animals so, you know, you just had that. It just felt right.
There were a couple of incidents when I wanted to say ‘ass’ and Tom was like, ‘Oh, that’s so funny but you can’t say ass. Try butt.’ And I was like, ‘Nah, butt’s not funny man.’ He’s like, ‘No it will, just say butt. Just give me one butt,’ and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not going to do butt because that’s the one you’ll use and then we’ll be fighting at the premiere so let’s – I’ll just try another line.’ So yeah, there was quite a bit of that.”
The Happy Dance: Make sure you stay through the credits to catch all of the happy dance, which is also a recurring gag throughout the movie. Sykes however wasn’t really involved in the happy dance sequences as much as her co-stars. “There is a moment of me doing the happy dance in there,” explained Sykes. “But I did more of a tango with John Michael Higgins. We did more of a two step. But yeah, I think it was a thing of probably as a black woman I was like, ‘I’m not dancing. You always want us to dance. I’m not going to dance,’ so I was being all defiant. But the shot that they got us dancing on the ark, I had reason to dance. That was the last shot and we [were] wrapped on the movie. I was so happy to get out of that suit I’d been wearing for the last two months. It smelled like monkey balls. It was just uughh. I mean we had baboons like this close to us, so trust me – I know what a monkey’s balls smell like.”
Evan Almighty’s Environmental Message: Sykes is pleased to have been part of a film that practiced what it preached. “It’s a good message,” said Sykes. “Hopefully it’s not too heavy. I mean, you know, we recycled on the set, with all the animals. And whatever animals were harmed during the making of the film, we ate them. I didn’t care for camel night. But, no, it’s good. I just hope that we keep moving along on this taking care of the environment. So I hope it’s not just a trend, you know?”
The Film’s Spiritual Theme: Asked about her relationship to church and how religious people may respond to the movie, Sykes replied, “I was brought up in a church and even as an adult I used to go to church all the time. And now, not so much. I don’t know. I consider myself more of a spiritual person. And hopefully religious people, they – I’m sure it’ll appeal to them because it’s a very family friendly movie. I mean there’s nothing edgy in here at all, you know? Because a lot of films they go, ‘Oh it’s family friendly,’ and then you get there, you sit with your kids and all of a sudden somebody gets shot in the head. You’re like, ‘Hey! What the …?’ That’s not good, what’s going on?’ You know? But this is very family friendly and, hopefully they’ll like it.”
Done with the Road for a Little While: Sykes has been keeping busy with her stand-up career and her HBO special, as well as acting in feature films. Now she’s able to relax a bit and unwind after spending a lot of time in front of audiences on the road. “I just wrapped up some dates on the road,” said Sykes. “I was in, what, April and May, I was on the road. I’ve been travelling a lot, like to Paris and Brazil, and I’ve been just doing new things, you know, like snowboarding. So I talked about more on that, because I was just so sick of talking about how Bush is screwing up everything. I can’t do it any more. I just take Ambien. I’m going to take a nap and just sleep it out man. Wake me up man at ‘08.”
